The Democrats are overconfident which will affect Dem turnout. The GOP however is being bombarded with doom and gloom from the MSM. At the same time, Ken Mehlman says we expected this and we have people on the ground to handle it. He is signaling that this will be a tough, but winnable fight. The GOP is not afflicted with overconfidence and will fight this campaign with all they have while Dems stay home and get ready to celebrate already drunk with their own invincibility.

I would love to see the polls looking better than they do, but I am frankly relieved to see they are bad enough to scare the GOP into action while lulling the Dems into a comfortable sense of apathy.

This is interesting from National Journal's Hotline:

Democracy Corps, the Dem entity of pollster Stan Greenberg and strategist James Carville, just released a poll of 1,200 likely voters (conducted 10/10-12) in 49 GOP-held Congressional Districts. The right track/wrong track was 31-61%; Bush's job rating was 41-55%; Congress' job rating was 28-67%; the GOP's "warm-cool" rating was 35-58%; the Dem Party's was 37-39%; Dems led the generic 50-42. Then they asked the question again but named the candidates, the Dem lead shrunk to 49-45%. Again, though, this was a survey only among likely voters in 49 competitive to semi-competitive GOP Congressional Districts.

http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/

If we are in as much trouble as last week's Constituent Dynamics/RT Strategies polls indicate, wouldn't you expect the generic numbers to be wider in the Dems' favor?

if the dems take control of the house and/or senate i think it will mean victory for the mainstream media more than for demcratic party. it will be a giant msm slap in the republican face that all their 'agenda reporting' has worked so magnificently in swaying public perceptions about george bush and republicans. they will get away with playing loose with the facts, protecting democrats from themselves, and putting the conservatives in a bad light on a daily basis with little or no conscience. they've had too much unfair control of people's perceptions and have almost acted like a political party of their own with free license to do or say what they want.

it's pretty pathetic.

The doom and gloom is the MSM tactic to give Pub leaning voters a sick in the pit of their ethos feeling. It has to be overcome. I am encouraged that many conservblogs, websites are not discouraged and that Mehlman's view that GOP technical superiority will glean more GOP voters than the Dems, pollsters, and MSM think. As an evangelical pastor, a college teacher and a political junkie, I will vote GOP every time because I know Dem policies will get us all killed, destroy personal liberties via tax hikes, a loss of the war against Islamofascism, and a socialist pacifist policy for both domestic and foreign agendas. I pray there are many more like myself who will confound the CW.

GOPWins:

Charlie Cook is a notorious liberal meme setter and a favorite of the DC crowd. He was laughably wrong in 2002 and 2004, yet he still gets love from teh DC crew. In fact, his National Journal/Constituent Dynamics has entered into a deal with MSNBC.com and the network. Everything he says should be taken with a grain of salt.